States

What's up, sports fans. 

This weekend saw the culmination of months' worth of Abby's hard work in pom, with Midland Varsity Pom heading down to Eastern Michigan University for States (I forget the name of the pom association that runs it, it's something like MPAA or MPPA or MAPA or some crap, who knows.) Following their performance at Regionals (which was Heritage, if you'll recall), the girls landed themselves in the super-competitive Division I bracket, which pitted them against downstate juggernauts like Northville, Livonia, South Lyon, and others. 

More or less guaranteed to get their asses handed to them, seeing how Midland is relatively small in comparison, but everyone was stoked that they placed in the elite division to begin with.

This year's States showcase went down like it has the previous couple years that Abby's been involved with it. We left Midland in the early afternoon on Saturday, checked into our hotel and rendezvoused with the Johnsons, grabbed some dinner, and then turned in for the night. The next morning, not quite as early as we have in previous years (seeing how the varsity team performs in the afternoon instead of the ass-crack of dawn), Abby got ready with her team while we all slowly got around for the day. Then, later on in the morning, we drove over to Eastern to their gymnasium for the showcase.

But at least Abby remembered her uniform this time around.

We had to endure about two dozen pom routines before Abby and Midland took the stage, and their routine went perfectly. . . but they still ended up coming in last place in Division I. This was more or less expected, seeing how the bigger, downstate schools had huge teams and a ridiculously large pool from which to pull pommers, and consequently their routines were insane. Abby and Ella were pretty indifferent with their placement, though - like I said, they were just happy they had made it into the big leagues this time around. We'll see what happens next year.

Anyway, here's States, gang. Enjoy. . .

Abby and Ella, hauling a bunch of their crap into the hotel.

Us and the Johnsons got neighboring rooms up on the third floor, which was convenient since Abby and Ella are attached at the hip.

Establishing headquarters.

They had Kris' name up on the room's TV when we checked in, just like at Disney World.

Some obligatory hotel room shots. . .

This bathroom counter top was soon littered with all the girls' crap they use on a daily basis.

Shower looked fancy enough, but the water pressure sucked.

The girls, settling in.

Abby microwaving one of the hotel's complimentary cookies you get at check-in.

Abby and Alayna's bed (Abby wanted a pic of her set up, complete with a blanket from home and a stuffed animal.) Both girls insisted on bringing their own blankets, which took up tons of space and I ended up carrying them to and from the car more often than not.

View from the room.

Abby and Ella, hanging out in the Johnson's room.

The rooms had these little footstools on wheels for some reason, so Erik decided to take it for a spin around his room.

This, of course, got the girls giving it a go. . .

These two kept themselves entertained with this for awhile - surprised no one pinched a finger or something.

Eventually a hotel employee came along and yelled at everybody and our fun was cut short. There's no way in hell I would care that much to say something to a guest, but maybe that dude really, really takes minimum-wage hotel service seriously.

Someone heard about this pub/bar in Ann Arbor and wanted to check it out. It was pretty busy inside, and the service was weird: instead of being served, you snagged a table yourself, then walked up to the counter to place your food and drink orders, then they'd bring out your orders once they were ready.

Wives on phones.

This burger was pretty awesome (as was the beer.)

Courtney and Kris watching the trailer for the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie.

Meanwhile, Alayna was out with a friend that she used to work with at Taco Bell last summer (who is now attending Eastern), and Abby was doing some team-bonding activities with the rest of the team back at the hotel (shown here.)

They're kind of a package deal.

On the way back from dinner, we popped into a party store to pick up a few drinks, then hung out in the Johnson's room for a couple hours to watch TV and unwind. I had to break my readers out in order to figure out how to open this tall boy that I picked up, it was far too complicated for me.

Kids as energy drinks?

After awhile, we decided to turn in for the night - we had a big day of watching teenage girls ahead of us coming soon.

The next morning, Abby and Ella began grooming preparations with the team downstairs.

A couple hours later, following breakfast, we checked out of our rooms and drove over to nearby Ypsilanti for the showcase. Abby and a few other girls didn't have their hair finished, so they had to roll in with their hair looking like this. She was super excited about this, and truly appreciated me taking her picture.

Surprisingly enough, we found seats without an issue (a lot of folks must have cleared out after the middle school performances earlier in the morning, who knows.) Now we just had to sit through four hours of pom routines. . .

Abigail, Abby and Brooklyn, getting ready during the JV performances.

Alayna brought a bunch of her homework to do while we were just sitting around doing nothing, and managed to take a few pics here and there.

Kris and Courtney use a phone's zoom in order to try and locate their children from across the stadium.

Following the judge's scores, there came the usual hour-long process of trying to locate your children and get them out of the venue. Lots of picture-taking went down during this chaos, but the team was able to get a pic before everyone was scattered to the four winds.

Abby took a bunch of pics with various other pommers, including this one with one of her coaches (who is on the elite Atomic Pom team.)

(No idea who this is.)

With Brooklyn.

No idea.

Also no idea.

This chick's a senior on the team, but I don't know her name.

Always have to get one with her other half. . .

Abby reluctantly agreed to take one with her family, her least favorite thing to do at these things.

Abby and Ella, gossiping about and trash-talking other kids as they packed up their things before leaving. These two will gossip and trash-talk.

- Brian

Superbowl LX: Two Teams No One Cares About

Hey sports fans.

If you're anything like me, you couldn't have cared less about this Superbowl. With the Detroit Lions fizzling out, like, halfway through the season, no one in this family was at all invested in who ended up in this bloated, over-hyped football game. Not that we're huge sports fans around there anyway, except for maybe Abby, who has recently gotten into hockey over the course of the last year or so.

No, the game itself wasn't anything we were looking forward to this evening, but our local group of friends gets into sports a great deal, so - like we've done the last several years (as you can see if you peruse the Archives section off to the right of this post) we turned the invite into a giant party. Ten families, tons of food, and a full-blown Squares Board (drawn up by Yours Truly) so folks could gamble and make the game somewhat more interesting.

In the end, even the game board couldn't make the game exciting to watch - it was probably the most boring game of Sportsball I've ever watched (and that's saying something.) That being said, it was a good time getting together with friends and gourging on awesome food. I'm always in the mood for that scene.

So here's this year's Superbowl shindig, this time around hosted by Steven and Alicia over at their house.

Enjoy. . .

Lon-Dog helps himself to the available spread.

Some of Danielle's pre-made, fried tacos and the legendary Griggin Guac.

Random sides (including that jalapeno cheese stuff Kris only makes for parties, and not for our regular consumption at home (because if she did we'd both weight over 200 lbs.)

Somebody's chicken skewers (I didn't ask who made them, but they were good.)

Mitch modified his usual bacon-wrapped jalapenos in favor for something lighter, while still maintaining the same taste. Still good, but a little messier to eat.

I brought along one of the limited edition stouts Kris put in my stocking this year (one of those 'limit one per customer' deals, and honestly she was lucky to score one in the first place.) It was beyond awesome, one of the best beers I've ever had.

Goose Island isn't one of my favorite breweries, but this bourbon barrel stout leaned hard into the bourbon taste. . . which is maybe why it was so damn good.

The Larsons (and other folks) settle in for four or five hours of spectacle.

The pre-game shenanigans kick off. . .

They set up an auxiliary TV in the kitchen so folks never risked missing a single minute of the game (which, while unnecessary, was considerate.)

Hosts in the kitchen.

Steven set up various trash and can receptacles in his laundry room. Dude had a system.

Green Day headlined the pre-game opening show. Not as political as I hoped for, but enough to ruffle some feathers, I'm sure.

The Real Housewives of Midland, left to right: Stephanie, Kris, Alicia, Lori, Mees, Danielle, Courtney, and Kelli.

Getting closer to the start of the actual game itself.

My kids were slow to arrive, as they had to wait for each other to finish getting ready ('cause every social outing might as well be the frickin' prom these days. . .)

Checking out some of Cory's side hustle betting - neither Kris or I had cash on us when we showed up, so we didn't participate, but wanted to check it out anyway (Kris took this 'cause I didn't have my reading glasses on hand in order to read the small print of the scoreboards, so she lent me hers.)

The game begins. . .

Kris grilling Abby about. . . something.

Lonnie and Collier take a break from the big screen in order to squeeze in some QT with some smaller screens.

Ella borrows Abby's phone to take a quick selfie with her dad.

The wives, not really watching football.

Abby's boyfriend, Logan, was along for the ride tonight.

(Kris took lots of pics of the kids throughout the evening.)

Constant grazing in the kitchen.

Bardens and Holtys.

Ella's not sure about her significant other.

Not sure who made these, but they were pretty awesome, too.

I had been sitting on the couch for the first half of the game, but felt isolated on that side of the room, so I moved to a more centralized location.

Bad Bunny, the polarizing minority none of our right-leaning friends were brave enough to vocalize displeasure with in public, performing during the Halftime Show.

Holty's dog attempts to make a new friend.

Lonnie checks on the board to see who's favored to win the next quarter.

Like I said earlier, this game was super boring - the only thing keeping it remotely interesting was the chance of somebody winning $150 at the end of each quarter.

At some point in time in the evening, this dog decided to start picking a fight with Mitch and I. . . who knows why.

Giving Mitch the business. 

I wasn't having it, though - I don't take shit from dogs smaller than mine.

Ella, keeping it classy.

Anyway, that's this year's Super Bowl post. Another solid party with a solid group of regulars. And I was smart enough this year to take the next day off of work (I scheduled a dentist appointment for the day after so I had a valid excuse - this ain't my first rodeo.)

- Brian